An Interview with...Colin Mochrie

By Ian Rice
Arts and Lifestyle Editor

It’s a quarter after three and I’m pacing around my apartment nervously. In fifteen minutes, I’m going to receive a phone call from Colin Mochrie, star of television’s Whose Line Is It Anyway? and a true master of all that is comedy. As if this being my first interview ever wasn’t enough to send my heart into palpitations, it just so happens it’s with a man that I’ve been a fan of for years. I was twelve years old when I first saw the British version of Whose Line? and Mr. Mochrie has provided me with a good majority of the truly hearty laughs I’ve had in my life. No doubt he’s had a similar effect on many other people out there over the last two decades he’s spent in the public eye. And audiences will have an opportunity to get more of those laughs when Mr. Mochrie pulls into their town with the two-man improvisation show, “An Evening with Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood.”


For those who don’t already know, Colin Mochrie is a force to be reckoned with in terms of comedy and talent. Mochrie made his first appearance on the popular British improvisation comedy show, Whose Line is it Anyway? in 1991. He soon became a show regular, appearing in every episode. The British Whose Line? continued its run until 1998 before moving to the US under the ABC network. Thanks to the trans-Atlantic success of Whose Line?, Mochrie's profile in North America has increased considerably. He has appeared in numerous Canadian and American TV shows such as The Drew Carey Show, The Outer Limits, Improv Heaven and Hell, Supertown Challenge, Blackfly, and from 2001 to 2003 became a permanent cast member of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, a Canadian political-satire TV show. In short, the man never stops working. So I considered myself lucky enough to be given the opportunity to speak with him for a little while and ask him a few questions.


As three-thirty approached, I was beside myself with nerves. The phone rang, I shakily started my recorder and answered the call. In a very subdued and human manner, Mr. Mochrie asked for me. I introduced myself and after a brief session of informing him what a tremendous fan of his work I was and how much of an honor it was to be speaking with him, we got started. Here is my interview with the extremely gracious Colin Mochrie…


Ian Rice: A good number of people know you from Whose Line is it Anyway? How has being on the show impacted your success?


Colin Mochrie: Basically it’s all my success. Without Whose Line? I certainly wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do the live touring I’m involved with now. And it’s given me other opportunities elsewhere. So, I’m always grateful, first of all, for the British Whose Line? that sort of got me started and then when Drew (Carey) brought it over to America things really started to take off there.


IR: You appeared on both the British and American version of Whose Line? Which version was better for you as a performer?


CM: They were both actually pretty much the same. I mean, it was the same producers for both so the actual show was set up the same way. The only difference was in what the final product ended up being. In Britain, there was no censorship whatsoever and in America we actually had a censor in the booth. Which, especially in the first year, was a tough readjustment for everyone. They would actually call down in the middle of scenes and say, “No, you can’t do that.” So, it was sort of…we were trying to find a line that we could straddle. We certainly didn’t want to get dirty, because if we did the scene would never be shown on television. But, also we weren’t quite sure where that line was. Some of the things they took exception to where things that I…(laughs) I didn’t agree with. (laughs)


IR: Did you find that some of your best things from the taping were left on the cutting room floor?


CM:Oh, no no…I’m pretty good. (laughs) I’ve learned how to get around it. I mean, there were some things where I thought, “My God, how could they?” You know, they would bleep the word “laid” or something. (laughs) And it would always, to my mind, make the audience think of something ten times worse that what was actually said.


IR: I read on the AP Newswire that the version of Whose Line? that’s been on ABC has been cancelled.


CM: Yeah.


IR: Given the success of the show, what do you attribute the cancellation to?


CM: (Takes a deep breath) Oh, there are so many things. I wonder if I can talk about them without getting into trouble. (laughs) I don’t think that ABC handled the show very well. When we first debuted in the summer (of 1998), we had great ratings. The show generated a lot of word of mouth and we were also sort of riding the success of the British version because it had been shown on Comedy Central for so many years and it had built a loyal cult audience.


IR: Right.


CM: But the show was so cheap for them to produce. That’s why they ended up putting us up against Friends and Survivor, two of the hottest shows of the last twenty years. (laughs) But because our ratings, even though our ratings weren’t very good, because the show was so cheap we still made money for the network. So, because of that I think they felt they didn’t have to publicize us. So, we never got any publicity. And then they started switching our time slot around. And then there was a political thing where the people who really championed the show sort of left and then new people came in and wanted to put their stamp on it. It just because sort of a mess. I don’t think ABC actually ever realized how popular the show was. In fact, I know that they didn’t. There was one year where…Warner Brothers (who produced the show) is owned by Disney. The California adventure park (Disneyland) attendance was down, so they decided that they would combine two events. They would have a sort of Grand Opening of the park and also a celebration of ABC Primetime. So all of the ABC stars went down and we were in the parade and part of the festivities was that we did a show, the Whose Line? guys, at one of the theaters there. There was a line up…people started lining up fours hours before the show started. And Michael Izner, the head of the thing (Disney), came up to me and said, “Oh, I didn’t know your show was so popular.” (laughs) And I thought, “Well, you of all people should know. It’s your network!” But they just really truly didn’t take advantage of it. One of the great things about Whose Line? was, I think, that we had the widest demographic of any show ever. I mean, kids from six and up would watch it, grandparents would watch it. When we go to live shows, I’m always amazed how different our audience members are. They go from anywhere from five year olds to eighty year olds. And they all seem to enjoy it. So I’m hoping (laughs) someday maybe they’ll put out the DVD and hopefully then they’ll see how popular the show actually was.


IR: Is there any shot of it coming back on ABC or is it pretty much a done deal at this point?


CM: I think it’s pretty much a done deal. We haven’t shot in two and a half years now. And no one’s actually ever told us that we’re cancelled. We just kind of assumed because we’re not doing it anymore. (laughs) But, yeah, it just wasn’t treated very well.


IR: You recently appeared on the WB's Drew Carey’s Green Screen Show premiered, which is kind of like Whose Line? but it adds animation to the final editing. How do you feel about the new direction and does the added animation affect your overall performance on the show?


CM: It’s…you know what? I haven’t actually seen a show yet. (laughs) So, I can’t comment on that part of it. When Drew first talked to us about it, it sounded pretty exciting and it was different and it was sort of a new step to take it on television. That being said, I found the tapings much harder to do than with Whose Line? because there was that added thing in the back of your mind where you would think to yourself, “I can’t just sit here and talk, I have to do something for the animators. They can’t get excited about two people just sitting in a kitchen.” You know, it was having to do the game, having to be funny and then this added thing of trying to, in a way, be a director and getting a visual sense of what the scene was about. I found it difficult. Towards the end of our tapings it got a little easier but the first couple were kind of rough.


IR: What initially drew you to improv and how do you keep things fresh after so many years of doing it?


CM: I was first drawn to it being a lazy person. (laughs) I thought, “Oh, you know, you don’t have to learn anything you just go up there and do it.” And I loved the danger aspect of it. I mean, it’s the closest I’ll get to skydiving. (laughs) Where I can go out in front of an audience who paid good money and have absolutely nothing to show them except what they give us. So I find it exciting and it’s always fresh because I’ve been very fortunate in that I’ve always been working in improv with great people. Even before the Whose Line? people, I was with Theatersports and Second City in Toronto. And what was nice about Whose Line? was working with Ryan (Stiles), of course, who I’d known for like twenty-six years. We grew up together. But one of the frustrating things about Whose Line? was I never got a chance to work with anyone else. Which is why it’s great doing these live shows where Brad (Sherwood) and I are going out and working together. So that keeps it fresh because although I’ve known Brad for fifteen years, we haven’t worked together that much. So it’s nice to be working with someone who’s coming from a different angle.


IR: Speaking of the show you’re doing with Brad Sherwood, how does that experience differ from doing televised improvisational comedy?


CM: It’s a lot looser and there’s a different feeling. Whose Line? came very close to capturing what a live performance of improv is like, but there really is no substitute for the real thing. In our show, every scene starts with a suggestion from the audience and for about ninety percent of them we have audience members on stage with us. So it’s a little more interactive actually than Whose Line? was. And because we don’t have to worry about time, we can explore the scenes as much as we want and really milk it dry. (laughs) And we tend to do that! (laughs) So, I actually prefer doing the live shows.


IR: As a member of the audience, what can you expect from going to one of the “An Evening with Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood” shows?


CM: I think you expect not to learn anything. (laughs) You don’t walk away going, “Oh yes, I’ve learned something about the human condition.” (laughs) It’s just two hours of fun. It’s mostly games that are probably familiar to Whose Line? fans and then we have some games that Brad and I have invented and sort of adapted for the stage.


IR: Performing live improv shows requires you to rely heavily on audience participation. How do you deal with an audience that’s reluctant to participate?


CM: Luckily, we haven’t come across that too often. When we’re doing the live shows, basically our audience knows what the show is, so most of them are pretty excited and want to be involved right away. And the only thing that can actually throw you is whatever suggestions you get from the audience because they can be very strange. So, basically we’ve worked out a way of getting suggestions from the audience that sort of opens up their imagination and keeps it away from doing scenes about gynecologists and proctologists. (laughs)


IR: Aside from your vast body of improvisational work, you’ve also appeared in several television and film roles. What was your favorite project that was outside of the realm of improv?


CM: Oh God…(laughs) Let me think…my wife (Debra McGrath) and I have just done a pilot up in Canada for the network up there and I have to say right now that’s been my favorite just because I’m producing it, I wrote the scripts, my wife and I are in it, we cast all our friends and it ended up being really good. I’m very proud of it.


IR: That’s Getting Along Famously, right?


CM: Yeah. So, we’re pretty excited about that. Otherwise, I really enjoyed working on (Jim Carrey comedy vehicle) Man On the Moon, even though I ended up not actually being in it. But it was great to work with such a great director, Milos Forman. And I was actually quite proud of what I did, it was just unfortunate that nobody got to see it! (laughs)


IR: Were your scenes deleted? Is that what happened?


CM: Yes, my scene was deleted. I was hoping it might be on the DVD, but no. No it wasn’t! (laughs)


IR: One final question for you: what does the future hold for Colin Mochrie?


CM: I have no idea. I’m guessing more of the touring because we’re really enjoying that. It really is a lot of fun. I’d like to branch out into movies, it’s just finding producers and directors that want to hire me! (laughs) But I’ll just keep plugging along and see what happens.






This interview previously published in November, 2004 in the Stony Brook Press.